Weather Forecast

Sunday expected to be coldest Super Bowl on record

After lunch, Becky O'Donnell, from Florida, and her sister Jessica Gregg from Los Angeles, walk down Nicollet Mall in Minneapolis bundled up in five layers of clothes topped off with a Super Bowl LII knit hat to deal with the cold weather in Minneapolis on Thursday, Feb. 1, 2018. Gregg is a corporate lawyer and O'Donnell is an elementary school teacher and they will both be at the Super Bowl. Jean Pieri / Pioneer Press1 / 2

The forecast shows a high of around 8 degrees Sunday and a low of -3, the first time a Super Bowl Sunday has ever dipped below zero in the host city. Wind chills could be as low as -19, according to a tweet from the National Weather Service. There's a 20 percent chance of snow early Sunday as well.

The big game Sunday will be played indoors. But many of the festivities surrounding the Super Bowl are outdoors.

Less-chilly Super Bowl cities

Prior to this year, the coldest Super Bowl was in Pontiac, Mich., in 1982, according to data from the Southeast Regional Climate Center. The high was 16 degrees; the low, 5 degrees. That game — and 17 others — also was played indoors.

In 1972, the Dallas Cowboys took on the Miami Dolphins outdoors, with a 43-degree high, the coldest Super Bowl played outdoors — at Tulane Stadium in New Orleans.

In Los Angeles and San Diego, Super Bowl Sunday temperatures have reached 82 degrees. For last year's Super Bowl in Houston, played indoors, the high was 78.

Embracing the cold

This year, authorities with the Host Committee said they've been planning for cold — with warming benches, places near Super Bowl Live for folks to go inside, and suggestions for appropriate clothing — for years. The idea is to embrace the cold. With ice sculptures, skating, a tubing hill and other Minnesota traditions showcased.

"We've always planned for cold weather, after all it's February in Minnesota," Host Committee Spokesman Mike Howard said. Organizers will monitor weather conditions and alter event plans should it get too cold.

For Minnesotans, the weather is slightly colder than usual, but nothing out of the ordinary. It's a chance to show the rest of the country just how cool Minnesota is, some say.

"Am I the only one happy that it's been brutally cold so far for #SuperBowl week?," Nick Lewis tweeted. "We don't need these out of towners coming here thinking we're soft. Or worse: not leaving. Let them know we zipline in sub zero temps and jump into frozen lakes. This is the friggin' #Bold North."

Our weather makes news elsewhere

"The big chill: Cold weather is odd for Super Bowl host but a way of life in Minnesota" read a columnist's headline on www.usatoday.com Thursday.

"Don't whine about Super Bowl's bitter cold in Minneapolis — embrace the Bold North" is the headline on a column for Yahoo! Sports.

"How to dress in layers for winter, from a Minnesota expert" was the headline to an Associated Press story on the Boston Herald website.

There are plenty of news stories and social media posts about our cold. Perhaps too many, some ridicule.